


Elektric Encounter

by Reymonkey



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-25 00:21:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/946440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reymonkey/pseuds/Reymonkey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Back in 1939, the Steam Man Band performs at another World's Fair, but they're not the only robots there...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Elektric Encounter

By Nineteen-thirty-nine the Steam Man Band were old pros when it came to technology fairs. Just six years ago, they had performed the Chicago World’s Fair, and done well enough to be invited back again. But they would not be the only robots there.   
The Walters had sprung for a couple of private cars on the train- the room much needed to accommodate not only three restlessly excited automatons, but also three children who struggled against boredom by day and against sleep by night throughout the journey. Mr. Walter II sat with the band at the little breakfast table, while cornfields blurred past the train window. He had to sit at an angle just to avoid knocking knees with the lanky titanium legs of the Spine.   
“Now when you meet the other robot, remember a lot of people will be watching. You have to be polite.” P.A. Walter II directed this advice primarily at Rabbit, but his angular copper face was turned to gaze at the scenery passing by. The Spine he could trust to behave himself, but Rabbit was another matter.  
“Peter, take your finger out of your nose, please.” His wife’s voice distracted Peter Walter the second, but she was of course addressing their two-year-old son. Not for the first time, P.A. Walter II considered if it had been wise to continue his father’s legacy of conceit in naming sons.   
P.A. Walter IV giggled and pointed a chubby finger, not at his father, but at the brass robot seated beside him.   
The Jon, grimacing comically, also had a finger up his nose.  
The upcoming public presentation was going to be awkward, no question of that.

~*~

After the adventure of disembarking from the train (Colonel Walter III had to be pulled away from flirting with a girl in the dining car, and the robots were temporarily switched off and unloaded in crates as a matter of necessary secrecy), and getting settled in the hotel (at fifteen and thirteen years old, Mark Ray and Wanda could not be trusted to peacefully share a room, so they ended up with her and Mary and the toddler Peter IV in one room, and the boys in the other), the Walter brothers went to hunt down the Westinghouse Corporation boys.  
“It’s not as if he’s a big secret…” Colonel Walter III protested.  
Joseph Barnett, a representative of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, smirked at the twins. “Sure, and I don’t see you parading your robots around here yet.”  
For a brief moment, P.A. Walter II envisioned the inevitable chaos if they had tried to wrangle all three robots through the fairgrounds. The World’s Fair didn’t officially open until the next day, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t find some trouble to get into. “We… just arrived.” He answered tactfully.  
His brother was less patient. “Look, we know our automatons, and we really shouldn’t go into this presentation without a dry run.”  
Mr. Barnett shook his head. “If your robots are unreliable, that’s your problem. You’ll see Elektro the same time everyone else does. He’ll be on that stage at Nine tomorrow, whether your robots are with him or not.” The man pointed to the elevated platform, a half-circle with railing around it.  
It hadn’t escaped the Walters’ notice that Westinghouse Electric had a much more polished exhibition area than Walter Robotics did. They couldn’t afford to blow it with this joint display of the robots, considering how much better exposure they’d get on this stage. P.A. Walter II gave a sigh, and laid a hand on his brother’s arm to cut off any protest. “We’ll be here, and so will they. Just be forewarned, things would really go smoother if we had a practice go.”  
Barnett laughed. “We’ll see you tomorrow. Elektro performs perfectly, every time.”  
Colonel Walter III huffed through his mustache, deeply irritated, but where matters of official Walter Robotics were concerned he tended to defer to his two-minutes-older twin as the final word.  
P.A. Walter II gave the Westinghouse Roboticist a thin smile. “So do ours, yet somehow it’s different every time…” He turned his back on the dumpy man with the pencil mustache, and headed out of the building, trusting his brother to follow. Maybe the cooler air would help cool the Colonel’s head.  
“…Do you think he has something up his sleeve? Like maybe there’s a human operator inside?” Colonel Walter III asked, after they’d walked in silence a ways and he’d had time to simmer down.  
“Maybe… or maybe he just doesn’t know what he’s up against. I did my research. Barnett wasn’t here the last time we were.” He couldn’t imagine anyone being so smugly confident in the face of the Steam Man Band. The Walters had grown up with them, and the automatons still continually blew their ideas of artificial intelligence in their faces all the time, surprising them with ignoring all the supposed limitations of their circuitry. Even their father freely admitted he had never actually programmed the robots to write their own music, yet they’d begun to do so with alarming skill and depth of feeling. The Westinghouse robot, Elektro, wasn’t even powered by any form of matter but raw electricity, according to the advertising. What match could that kind of A.I. be for the Walter Robots? Perhaps more importantly, what effect would the wildly unpredictable Walter Robots have on an untested A.I. that had never before met anything but humans expecting full obedience?

~*~

P.A. Walter II insisted on being the one to get the Steam Man Band up on the stage himself. His brother was still muttering under his breath about Mr. Barnett, and had spent some time on the phone with their father the night before, worrying over every possible outcome for this meeting. He didn’t trust him on the stage for this. Besides that, it was going to be a little cramped with them all up there. After arranging the trio (The Spine to the back because of his height, Rabbit and the Jon to the front but a safe distance from the railing), he sent them into standby mode. They were early.  
When Mr. Barnett came out on the stage, there was already an audience beginning to gather, and behind him, several men pushed Elektro out into place.  
P.A. Walter II tried not to gape. The robot was a monster, taller than the Spine, bulky and looming as Frankenstein’s mythical creation, with a face like an afterthought. The limbs and body were smooth, solid, blocky shapes, and what joints he could see were few. It seemed to be on rollers, and possibly already in standby mode or shut off. He couldn’t decide yet if it was the most terrifying creation he’d ever seen, or the most pathetic.  
For his part, Mr. Barnett’s smug smile faltered at the sight of the more humanoid figures standing half-collapsed waiting on the stage.  
“…Just let me know when to wake them.” P.A. Walter II heard himself say. His gaze was on the giant gleaming pale gold beast looming above them all. His father’s robots he trusted.  
“To…” Mr. Barnett blinked, then was distracted accepting a microphone and a- was that some kind of control box? There seemed to be a cable running from Elektro’s right foot to offstage. The thing had to stay plugged in? P.A. Walter II felt himself gradually relax. He let the other man make the introductions to the growing crowd, and the hall was filled by the time Barnett nodded at him to turn the automatons on.  
The Jon was the first to straighten fully and get his bearings, and when he saw the gathered crowd he beamed, and gave them a friendly wave. Beside him, Rabbit was still sorting himself out. The Spine tipped his hat politely from over their heads.  
Mr. Barnett was half-turned away, speaking to the robot now, his introduction suddenly stilted. “Elektro, Come!”  
The hulking robot began to buzz abruptly, and one leg shifted. All three Walter automatons’ heads swiveled to stare, but the Westinghouse robot only walked forward a foot or so, until he was told to stop.  
“Elektro! Will… you… tell… your… story… please?” Mr Barnett spoke clearly and carefully into the control box, some sort of separate microphone to prevent the machine from being confused by the rest of his creator’s patter.  
“W-what’s he talkin’ all funny for?” Rabbit whispered at him.  
It was all P.A. Walter II could do to keep a straight face.  
“Who, me?” The robot boomed, voice natural enough.  
“Yes, you.” Mr. Barnett’s ears were turning pink.  
“Okay Toots.” That earned a laugh from the crowd, but they were distracted now, half of them watching the other three robots who swayed, traded glances, and tilted their heads with curiosity all without any guidance from the humans on stage.  
“Ladies and… gentleman, I’d be very… glad… to tell… my story.” Elektro’s head swiveled, jaw moving stiffly. “I am a smart fellow, as I have a very… fine… brain…”  
“I like stories!” The Jon piped up abruptly, smiling his friendliest smile. “Will it have knights? And Princesses? And unicorns??”  
Mr. Barnett turned abruptly, clearly horrified at this break from script.  
Elektro continued in his slow, stilted away, completely ignoring the Jon. “…of forty-eight e-lec-trical relays.”  
“Yeah? How l-long did it take ya’ to count ‘em?” Rabbit quipped. The copper automaton was many things, but he was far from stupid, and had clearly reached the same conclusion P.A. Walter II had. There was no intelligence in this robot, artificial or otherwise.  
“Rabbit!” The Spine hissed. “Be nice!”  
The audience was chuckling, now, although there were a few murmurs about ‘men in costumes’. Compared to Elektro, the Walter automatons were too advanced to even be believed.  
Elektro’s right arm swung up slowly, and the jointed fingers began to bend one by one, as if he were counting off one them slowly.  
Mr. Barnett’s face was a vivid red.  
P.A. Walter II shrugged, and lifted the microphone he hadn’t even used yet. “I told you to behave.” He strode around the Jon, who moved obligingly out of his way, shuffling his feet and still managing to look more natural than Elektro’s buzzing steps. “And these are the Walter automatons. I’m afraid I can’t give away all the secrets of their inner workings, but their most important feature is their ability to learn and adapt…”  
There was a hollow, metallic plunking noise. Rabbit had snuck around behind both men to poke at the big gold robot, who was still flexing his fingers mindlessly one at a time, one hand held up in the air. “Hey, he ain’t e-even got a boiler!” Rabbit hissed back to his companions.  
Curious, the Jon bounded over to join him in prodding at Elektro. “But the posters said he smokes cigarettes…”  
“Th’ Spine does sometimes, too, and both his arms work…”  
Mr. Barnett’s face was shading from red to purple, now.  
The Spine cast both men a deeply apologetic look. “I’m sorry Mr. Walter…”  
“Aaand you can learn more at the Walter Robotics booth! We’d like to thank Mr. Joseph Barnett for sharing his stage with us,” P.A. Walter II cast the Spine a slightly frantic look and gestured for the exit. “It was an honor to meet Elektro today, but we’ll get out of the way and let him get on with his show!”  
Taking his cue, The Spine had already moved to collect his fellow band members, steam-piston legs carrying him across the stage in a couple of easy strides. He was all but dragging Rabbit to the stage door, the Jon following under his own power, albeit with a disappointed look. As P.A. Walter II fled after them, the brass robot gave a last glance back and a wistful wave to Elektro. “Nice meeting you!”  
A roar of laughter at their backs told him the Jon’s last words had been caught by the audience.

~*~

Colonel Walter III had been watching from the audience, and didn’t meet up with them again until they’d already reached their own booth. The Jon seemed genuinely disappointed they hadn’t gotten to hear Elektro’s story, but they left it to the Spine to console him. Rabbit just rolled his eyes and said Elektro was a big dummins.  
P.A. Walter II met his brother’s eyes, and tried hard to moderate the manic grin he could feel spreading across his own face. It was no help that looking at his twin, even the expression was mirrored. “Well, that was good publicity.”  
“Yup.” Colonel Walter III grinned right back. “I don’t think they’ll be forgetting Elektro for a while.”  
When both men burst into helpless laughter, leaning against each other, the Walter automatons merely glanced over with understanding smiles. People would be remembering them for a good while longer.

Fin

**Author's Note:**

> In the official SPG timeline, it says they performed at the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. There’s nothing that says they performed again at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1939, but there’s nothing that says they didn’t. Real world fact is that there was a robot at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1939, and it was called Elektro. It stood and walked, talked, and apparently smoked cigarettes because they thought that would be a good trick. While it was a real robot, there was no artificial intelligence involved, and it was a big clunky awkward thing if compared to the kind of beings the Steam Man Band would be. The idea of the two encountering each other struck me and wouldn’t let go.  
> You can read more about Elektro here (scroll down to number 3): http://history-computer.com/Dreamers/Elektro.html  
> Or even see video of Elektro on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T35A3g_GvSg


End file.
